1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a floor treatment robot having an autonomously movable floor treatment appliance, which has a housing. If necessary, a base station is provided, which serves at least to charge the battery of the floor treatment appliance.
2. Description of Related Art
Within the context of the present invention, a floor treatment appliance means a suction and/or sweeping appliance. To this end, such cleaning appliances have electrically driven suction fan units and/or brushes and/or brush rollers that are driven by electric motors. A floor treatment appliance can also mean a lawn mower. However, the invention is described mainly in relation to a floor-cleaning appliance in the domestic field below.
The autonomously movable floor treatment robot is supplied with electricity by means of batteries. To charge the batteries and also where necessary to dispose of the dirt or waste collected in a container inside the appliance, the floor treatment appliance is assigned a stationary base station, which is connected to the domestic electricity supply system.
The known floor treatment appliance finds the base station autonomously, e.g. using a radio and/or light signal guide or else radio communication between base station and floor treatment appliance. The prompt to move to the base station can take place automatically, e.g. by radio communication between base station and floor treatment appliance. The floor treatment appliance can likewise move to the base station by itself depending on the fill level of the dirt container of the appliance and/or on the charge state of the batteries. Furthermore, the floor treatment appliance can move to the base station automatically after completing a task to be carried out, e.g. cleaning a predefined floor area.
In the rest state, the self-propelled floor treatment appliance is situated at or on the base station and thus occupies a certain area in the room that cannot be used for other appliances or objects. Therefore, the base station is often stored in rooms such as bathrooms or storage rooms, so that the floor treatment appliance causes less of an obstruction.
A further domestic appliance is a personal weighing scale, which is likewise typically stored in bathrooms or storage rooms. The two appliances are often arranged directly next to each other.
The present invention is therefore based on the technical problem of reducing the space requirement for different domestic appliances.